Play Me A Memory
by KeivRus
Summary: Vignettes. A series of different interactions between Yu and various characters. Each story is connected loosely with the theme of rescue, whether it is through death or something as simple as a compliment.
1. Comfort Me: Ai Ebihara

**A/N: **I actually really like the relationship between Yu and Ai (there's a pun in there if you look closely.) I think people overlook Ai, but I personally think she has more character than Yukiko could ever hope to have. Please don't hate me.

Disclaimer: Don't own jack shit.

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Comfort Me: Ai Ebihara

"Don't look at me," she snapped as she placed her perfectly manicured nails in front of her face. Instead of following her command he continued to stare at her with a deadpanned look. "My makeup is all ruined and I don't want anyone to see me like this, okay?" She added and the trembling in her voice made him immediately pivot his head toward the school field down below. From the school rooftop, the soccer team looked so distant and he wondered how Daisuke would react when he realized Yu wasn't there.

The faint smell of flowery perfume brought him back to the crying girl next to him and everything soccer related seemed completely irrelevant. After a few tense moments of hiccups and tears, she finally whimpered, "He said he still had feelings for someone else. _Her._" Yu remained silent. During their last shopping hooky trip, he did vaguely recall Ai mentioning her upcoming high school romance debut. Whether it was his tired state from carrying her shopping bags or his misinterpretation, Yu never anticipated her so-called debut would turn out to be an actual confession.

Looking back, this explained why Kou seemed so uncomfortable when they briefly crossed paths in the locker room.

"What does she have that I don't?"

"Nothing," he replied still avoiding eye contact, "He just wasn't for you. It can't be helped." Out of his peripheral he could see her looking at him. Turning his head, he was only met with a teary glare.

"That's such a pathetic excuse."

He shrugged. For Yu, it wasn't too hard to comprehend that some situations couldn't be changed. Every transfer was out of his control. It would only cause him more grief if he tried to prevent yet another move. Pulling out his handkerchief, Yu handed it to her and she took it to wipe the mascara running down her cheeks. Then again, it was his submission that led to his solitude. If he had fought his parents then there was a possibility he could have remained at one school long enough to make friends. In a way, she was braver than he ever was.

"You're right," He added with a slight smile and she looked at him hoping he would elaborate. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, he merely said, "You look like a mess."

Instead of a harsh shove or biting glare, she unexpectedly laughed and he smiled again. Honestly, she was more likable when she accepted herself.

"I would kill myself if Kou saw me like this," She stared at the mascara on Yu's handkerchief with a frown, "I would kill myself if_anyone_ saw me like this."

The door to the rooftop opened and he instinctively put his arm around her to prevent prying eyes from looking at her "hideous state." She peeked up at him with confused and accusing eyes.

"Narukami!" Yu turned around to see Kou looking at him with wide eyes. "U-Uh, Daisuke was looking for you."

Yu glanced down as he heard Ai tensing from hearing Kou's voice. From the curious look on Kou's face it was obvious she wasn't recognizable from his angle.

"Tell him I'm with my girlfriend," Yu deadpanned with a slight shrug. With a flushed face and a thumb's up Kou nodded and turned to walk back inside the school. Finally the expected shove came, and he forgot how strong Ai was as he felt the pressure radiating on his chest.

"Why would you do that?!" She asked while pulling the hairs that were stuck on her lip gloss. Her brows furrowed in frustration.

Placing a finger on her forehead he dryly replied, "You're going to get wrinkles. Plus, he seemed a little jealous." Her face molded into a look of shock and then into a look of acceptance as she folded her arms across her chest.

"I hope you know you have to follow through now," She pulled out her mirror and began reapplying her mascara. Finally, she was back to the Ai he knew. Closing her compact, she looked at him. "Pick me up tomorrow at 6, okay? We're eating at that new French restaurant."

He looked at her as she confidently let him on the rooftop with only her signature hair flip as a wave goodbye. Yu wondered if it was a wise choice to openly let himself be trapped in a nightmarish one-sided relationship.

With a shrug he muttered, "It can't be helped."


	2. Kill Me, Quiet Me: Mitsuo Kubo

**A/N:** I always like Mitsuo as a character foil to Yu. There's a real chance that if Yu never met his friends or never established himself as someone who wasn't empty he really could have turned out to be like Mitsuo. I could go on for days about this subject. I analyzed the dialogue and subtle body language in the anime (which was probably me just making up what I wanted to see), but I guess I'll save that explanation for another day.

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Kill me, Quiet Me: Mitsuo Kubo

It was difficult to categorize their relationship. They were never friends, and they never would be, but they weren't necessarily enemies either. Admittedly, they were for a moment when he was surrounded pixels and fabricated dungeons. It was hard to look past the situation Mitsuo put him in before. He was trapped in a nightmare—haunted by the idea of being left alone and abandoned but now their positions were never thought in a million years he would be standing before a broken Mitsuo who was currently cornered into a pixelated room staring emptily at the TV screen. With a deadpanned stare, Yu noticed the isolated teen bashing his fingers on the video game controls as if he were on the brink of winning the final round, but the screen was glowing with a neon sign that read: "Game Over."

Mitsuo's eyes were vacant as always, but something about his expression was uncomfortably empty. In his glassy eyes, Yu could easily see his own reflection and the bright red Game Over. His lips turned into a visible frown and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on its end.

Mitsuo was never an ordinary high school student—who else would feel the need to falsely accuse themselves of murder?—but his current condition was of an entirely different scale. Yu's first question was how Mitsuo ended up in TV Land in the first place, but upon asking Mitsuo, the Leader was left with nothing but a haunting stare.

Yu's hands rolled into a tight fist. Even now, after all of the bonds he had created, he could clearly see his past empty self in Mitsuo's curled form. Any slight change in his life, and he was sure that he could have ended up the same—alone and unwanted. He never wanted to admit it, but in a way facing Mitsuo's Shadow and experiencing the illusion of losing his friends saved him. If anything it made him grab on to the fraction of hope he had and solidified his friendships with the team. It might not have been Mitsuo's intention to "save" him, but there was no denying that it brought Yu back to his senses. His dedication to bringing Mitsuo back from TV Land wasn't the fact that he was returning the favor or what Adachi called a "holier than thou" reaction. In a sense he was saving his past self.

Yu took a step in front of the TV to block the screen, but Mitsuo looked straight through him as he continued to rapidly press the buttons on the game controller. Out of the corner of his eye, Yu could see Mitsuo's Shadow lurking in the darkness. Unlike the others, Mitsuo never faced his Shadow and even now Yu could see it haunting him by whispering into Mitsuo's ear how worthless he was.

"You're not empty." Finally he caught Mitsuo's attention even if it was something as fleeting as a quick twitch of the eye. "You don't need to kill people to be worth something."

The Shadow eerily smiled as if it knew Yu's words were pointless. It was hard to forget what the Shadow had stated before during their past encounter. It was what Mitsuo considered his own lack of talent that made him doubt his existence. For Yu it was his disconnection the world. He had no friends during his countless transfers and his parents were just familiar faces in old photographs. The bonds he created saved him, but it wouldn't work the same way for Mitsuo. What Mitsuo needed was a realization that he wasn't worthless and that mindless video games weren't the only thing that he was capable of conquering.

"You're better than this Mitsuo," Yu angrily added as he tore the game control out of Mitsuo's deathly grip. "You're out of jail now. You can start over." He paused as he saw Mitsuo's empty look transforming into a pitiful look of self hate.

His hands were still shaped as if he had the controller.

Yu wasn't sure if it was the Shadow speaking or if it was his own realization but it dawned on him that his actions were pointless. When he confronted Adachi, a part of him knew there was someone who was desperately trying to find retribution. For Mitsuo, it was beyond the point of no return. Everything Yu said or had planned to say would only backfire. It was like how Yu would purposefully stay silent in school. It was an act of protest as well as a cry for attention. If his teachers noticed his lack of morale, his parents would be called and for at least a few hours he would feel their concern before he was whisked away to another school to start fresh. His parents had always assumed it was the environment that made him act that way, but they never saw the problem lied within themselves.

In this situation he was acting the same ignorant way his parents did. The fact that he was spouting encouraging words to Mitsuo only dug the knife deeper. Yu was the one with Wild Card ability—something he knew was a once in a lifetime gift, something even he thought was something straight out of a fantasy game—while Mitsuo stood silently in the corner with nothing but the biting words of his forum. Yu was the one who Yukiko admired and loved while she looked at Mitsuo with wary fearful eyes. He was his own poison. Yu looked up at Mitsuo to see him mouthing the words:

"Kill me."

Everything he stood for and everything he fought to defend would be thrown away if Yu chose to kill Mitsuo now, but he knew it was the only way. The answer to the question he had before revealed itself to him. Mitsuo didn't enter TV Land on his own accord. His friends who had their own Shadows unconsciously had the power to defeat their darkest thoughts which manifested into a Persona. For Mitsuo it was the opposite. His Shadow was overcoming _him_ and it was evident that his fate would be to stay trapped in TV Land until his Shadow overwhelmed him entirely. With a grave nod, he unsheathed his sword which made the Shadow convulse in alarm. He quickly summoned Izanagi and with a swift attack of the blade the Shadow screeched in pain as in disintegrated along with the pixelated walls of the dungeon. Yu's eyes lowered, unable to look at the source of where his blade hit flesh.

As the dungeon unraveled around him, he made sure he had killed the Shadow before the blade reached Mitsuo. This way he would die without being haunted til death by his Shadow.

And at least this way he would die the way he wished he could. A hero.


	3. Rescue Me: Cat

**A/N:** Sorry, this one is a little short but I enjoyed writing it. I guess I haven't really set up a set schedule for updates yet since I just started. I'll come around to that once I get situated.

** Miss Hanamura:** First off, thanks for the review! It means a lot you liked/read the story. I guess I'll explain this the best that I can (I tend to ramble.) Mitsuo is protrayed as someone without any notable skills, talents, or any redeeming qualities. In a sense, Yu started out the same way. Even Yu's appearance is dull, the deadpan face, the monotone, and even that bowlcut. Instead of finding redemption, Mitsuo just spirals into his own little world. The only thing he sees value in himself is with video games which is why his Shadow was in that game RPG setting. Mitsuo's Shadow says that Mitsuo's lack of attributes is why he doubts his existence/sees himself as empty.

Yu also struggles with that mindset which is best shown in the anime when he faces his own Shadow, and when he is trapped under Shadow Mitsuo's hallucinogenic influence. Yu states that he is afraid of being alone (probably due to the fact that he's always been forced to move from school to school which made him basically a closed in loner). If Mitsuo had found friends who gave him some kind of purpose, or accepted him for who he was, I really think he wouldn't be the irrational person he turned out to be. The only reason he resorts to murder is to finally have someone recognize him and to actually be _somebody _other than the boy in some random anonymous forum or the boy that Yukiko ignores. In Inaba, Yu was able to not only find friends, but he gained this supernatural Wild Card ability that gave him an opportunity to make something out of himself and to find his true potential.

They both have similar backgrounds/feelings about their own existence. The only thing that separates them is the fact that Yu was able to grow with his bonds, while Mitsuo remained isolated inside of his own little world. Had Mitsuo accepted his Shadow instead of neglecting its presence, things might have been different. I hope this was a decent explanation. That's just how I saw it!

On to the next vignette!

Disclaimer: I don't know anything.

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Rescue Me

His first encounter with a cat was when his parents were dropping him off at a distant relative's home. It was raining slightly, and he tightly gripped on to his mother's sleeve in a futile attempt to warm his hands but looking back on it, it was his silent pleading to make her stay.

It was the first time his parents decided it would be better for him to stay with a member of the family than burden them during their trip. He stood at the unfamiliar door step of his new home, and all he could think of was the cardboard box he saw out of the corner of his eye.

The poorly attached sign was curling at the edges from the rain, but the writing was still legible: Please give me a home. He could see a pair of damp paws clawing at the top of the box and withered whiskers brushing against the sides of the poorly protected box. His fingers slipped away from his mother's sleeve to walk over to the box. Opening his mouth he mimicked the cat's meow, only to get a quizzical look from the feline in response. He shrugged his shoulders. For some odd reason, he figured they would be able to communicate if they spoke the same language.

They both lacked a home after all.


	4. Notice Me: Hanako Ohtani

**A/N: **Another short one! I'm hoping some longer stories will arise sooner or later. I'm in the works of planning out a chaptered story, but if you have any requests or ideas you want to see fleshed out let me know! I work best when I have restrictions. Sadly, my imagination on its own can't carry itself.

** Miss Hanamura: **Don't worry about it! Your reviews mean a lot and keep me going! I try to space out my stories so I don't over upload, but then I end up getting stuck on what to write haha. Regardless, the story will continue! Hope you keep enjoying it.

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He wasn't the type to forget things, but it slipped from his mind that he had left his list for groceries inside of his shoe locker. Yu blamed his recent forgetfulness on the fact that he overslept this morning. Fighting Shadows for countless hours took a toll on the team's health and even now he could feel his muscles aching under the weight of his school backpack.

He turned back toward the Yasogami High gates, waving to Yosuke to walk home without him. Several students were filing out through the doors as they changed from their indoor school shoes to their regular sneakers. Maneuvering through the crowd, Yu made his way toward his designated locker only to find the familiar wide backside of his classmate.

With a deadpanned face, he walked toward Hanako and admittedly he was a bit nervous considering her flamboyant response to Kanji during their camping trip. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped in one of her delusions. He quietly analyzed her as he strategically planned his next move. Luckily, with his sufficient amount of _Courage_ he stepped toward her to dryly ask, "Can I help you?"

Her shoulders jerked. Obviously it wasn't her intention to be seen, which made him all the more curious. He peered down at her hands to see the familiar packaging of the anonymous presents he received from his secret admirer. The shocked look on her face made her absolutely pallid, but she quickly masked it with her usual triumphant look. The pieces were coming together and he couldn't help but smiled a bit.

Taking the package from her hand, he deadpanned, "It's for me, right?"

She folded her arms across her chest and looked pridefully to the side. "I'm only delivering it for…a friend of mine. Don't get your hopes up."

"I see," He smiled a bit, it was easy to see past her defensive lie. He leaned past her to get his grocery list from his already open locker, and from his peripheral he noticed her round cheeks flushing when his arm slightly grazed past her shoulder. In a strange way, her unusually discreet behavior was cute. Kanji did say Yu's definition of cute was a bit out of the ordinary.

Closing his locker he turned to face Hanako again and he raised up the present with a knowing smile, "Tell your friend I've always looked forward to getting these."

He didn't mind keeping her little secret.


End file.
